A high-sensitivity ultrasonic sensing system is proposed and demonstrated. In this system, a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating (PS-FBG) is used as a sensor to achieve broadband and highly sensitive detection. The PS-FBG modulates the output of a tunable laser to detect the ultrasonic strain directly. Balanced photo-detector (BPD) is used for eliminating the DC component and further amplifying the AC component in the detected signal. Another major function of the BPD is to reject laser intensity noise. As a result, the minimum detectable strain is limited by the BPD’s noise and laser frequency noise. The sensitivity of the system is 9 nε/Hz^1/2. Because of its high sensitivity, this system has the potential to be used in acousto-ultrasonic testing without amplifying the input signal and in practical acoustic emission detection.

The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor, which was developed over recent decades, has been widely used to measure manifold static measurands in a variety of industrial sectors. Multiple experiments have demonstrated its ability in ultrasonic detection and its potential in ultrasonic structural health monitoring. Unlike static measurements, ultrasonic detection requires a higher sensitivity and broader bandwidth to ensure the fidelity of the ultrasonic Lamb wave that propagates in a plate-like structure for the subsequent waveform analysis. Thus, the FBG sensor head and its corresponding demodulation system need to be carefully designed, and other practical issues, such as the installation methods and data process methods, should also be properly addressed. In this review, the mature techniques of FBG-based ultrasonic sensors and their practical applications in ultrasonic structural health monitoring are discussed. In addition, state-of-the-art techniques are introduced to fully present the current developments.

In engineering structures, metal materials always endure fatigue cracks under long-term service. There has been a demand for developing a structural health monitoring method to evaluate micro-sized fatigue cracks, as cracking is considered as a precursor to structural failure. However, conventional linear-ultrasound-based technology is not sensitive to crack when it is barely visible in a metal medium. In this article, we present a nonlinear ultrasonic technology based on crack–wave interaction to investigate the growth of a fatigue crack. A breathing-crack model with a plastic zone around it was precisely established to reveal the change in the Lamb wave. The relative nonlinear parameter calculated from the fundamental and harmonic components of the Lamb wave showed linearly increasing with the growth of the fatigue crack. The relative nonlinearity was related to ultrasonic parameters, such as the cycle number and the excited frequency of the tone-burst signal. In addition, it was also related to the angle between the sensor and the crack rather than their distance. A set of experiments were conducted, demonstrating that the increasing trend of ultrasonic nonlinearity fits very well to the finite element analysis results. In conclusion, the nonlinear ultrasonic method that can be applied to the detection of micro fatigue cracks in metal plates is an effective structural health monitoring technique.

In this paper, the impact energy potential of hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (HFRC) was explored with different fiber mixes manufactured for comparative analyses of hybridization. The uniaxial compression and 3-point bending tests were conducted to determine the compressive strength and flexural strength. The experimental results imply that the steel fiber outperforms the polypropylene fiber and polyvinyl alcohol fiber in improving compressive and flexural strength. The sequent repeated drop weight impact tests for each mixture concrete specimens were performed to study the effect of hybrid fiber reinforcement on the impact energy. It is suggested that the steel fiber incorporation goes moderately ahead of the polypropylene or polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforcement in terms of the impact energy improvement. Moreover, the impact toughness of steel-polypropylene hybrid fiber reinforced concrete as well as steel-polyvinyl alcohol hybrid fiber reinforced concrete was studied to relate failure and first crack strength by best fitting. The impact toughness is significantly improved due to the positive hybrid effect of steel fiber and polymer fiber incorporated in concrete. Finally, the hybrid effect index is introduced to quantitatively evaluate the hybrid fiber reinforcement effect on the impact energy improvement. When steel fiber content exceeds polyvinyl alcohol fiber content, the corresponding impact energy is found to be simply sum of steel fiber reinforced concrete and polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced concrete.

Nonlinear ultrasonic technique that evaluates the growth of the barely visible fatigue crack in metal is difficult to be achieved by conventional optical fiber sensor because of the critical requirements for sensor sensitivity and bandwidth. In this research, a high-performance optical fiber sensor using phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating and balanced demodulation system was applied to detect the fundamental and second harmonic Lamb waves propagating in an aluminum plate. After the nonlinearity was calculated from the modes of the Lamb waveform detected by the optical fiber sensor, its change due to the second harmonic generation shows an exponential trend in a fatigue test, which can be used to evaluate the crack growth with sufficient reliability. The experimental results from the optical fiber sensor were validated by comparing with results from the PZT sensor. This research facilitates the development of optics-based nonlinear ultrasonic structural health monitoring for fatigue crack evaluation.

An ultrasonic sensor based on two cascaded phase-shifted fiber Bragg gratings (PS-FBGs) is proposed and demonstrated. In place of an external cavity laser, a broadband amplified spontaneous emission light source is used to demonstrate multiplexing ability suitable for sensor networks. The system has a high sensitivity to ultrasonic waves generated by a PZT actuator placed 7.5 cm away from the PS-FBG, because of the steep slope in the center of the PS-FBG spectrum. A second advantage of the phase shift is to reduce the effective sensor length, leading to the achievement of broadband characteristics. A pencil lead break test was performed and all results are compared to a traditional PZT sensor.